I am sitting here in my living room after an average friday night here in cape town. I went out to dinner with some of my housemates (brian, ellen and julia) and then met some others when we got there.
I think I've gained social anxiety as I've gotten older, because I don't remember ever being this worried about making friends. However, since I've arrived in South Africa, and have found myself living with seventeen other Americans and two Africans, I have grown incredibly aware and concerned with people's opinions of me. I was only recently able to personally admit that I spend no more than two minutes in the presence of most of my housemates because of my fear of hitting a social wall in conversation. A drunk version of myself admitted this fact to one them over dinner this evening. It proved to be one of the funniest interactions I've had in a long time.

Seems she didn't think it was awkward at all. Instead, she thought my honesty was great, and turns out it paid off. Who knew. Go Africa.